HALLIE EPHRON: The other day I went to see the movie THELMA at my local senior center. I’d been wanting to see it since it opened, inspired by the rave New York Times review (entitled “Granny Get Your Gun”) of June Squibb, the 90-something actress who plays Thelma.
In the movie, Thelma gets a call, supposedly from a lawyer, saying her beloved grandson has been arrested and she has to immediately send big bucks in cash to a PO box.
She panics and does as she’s told. Later, when local law enforcement says there’s no way to get the money back, she takes matters into her own hands with a“borrowed” mobility scooter and pilfered gun and a little help from a friend.
I enjoyed the movie, despite the plot being utterly ridiculous. And there was the subtext of all the older women and men sitting in the room with me and laughing as many of the jokes about aging struck (too?) close to home.
Before the movie began we listened to a talk given by an expert on scams that target the elderly.
Almost everyone I know has experienced attempted scams. Weekly, if not daily. A few weeks ago, many of us got an email saying our EZ-pass accounts were overspent and we needed to click a link and replenish. Scam.
Our security expert’s advice: NEVER CLICK! HANG UP!
It happens to even smart, savvy people. A dear (and tech savvy) friend ended up nearly transferring a thousand dollars to rectify a “credit card issue” that “the bank” called to tell her about. Fortunately she hung up and just in time, called the bank directly to see if there was a problem with her credit card. There was not.
Most writers have experienced a scam where we get an email from a supposed celebrity blogger inviting us to be featured on their blog, offering to pay us thousands for the honor. In my dreams this would be legit, but not in the real world.
I already knew most of the bits of advice that the security expert shared, but one surprised me.
WHEN YOU GET A CALL WITH A CALLER ID YOU DON’T RECOGNIZE (OR NO CALLER ID), IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO ANSWER THE PHONE, PICK UP BUT DON’T SAY ANYTHING.
This is because even if the caller never convinces you to do something stupid with your money, they can record your voice and spoof it with a scam call to your loved one.
So what’s your experience been with scammers and what advice are you heeding?
(If you want concise advice about avoiding scams, see this article in U. S. News.)
This whole thing about scams and using Artificial Intelligence to make recordings that sound like your loved ones is downright scary.
ReplyDeleteWe get scam phone calls all the time; often they come up on the Caller ID tagged as spam. We just ignore them . . . unless it's a name or a phone number we recognize, we don't answer the phone at all, we simply let it go to "leave a message" . . . .
I recently got scammed and quickly made the adjustments I needed to avoid any future usage by the scammer.
ReplyDeleteI let all my calls go to voice mail if I don't recognize the number.